Robots on a 4-by-8-foot playing field had 90 seconds to collect different-colored balls -- pineapples and leaves -- for a compost bin, deliver water, put a roof on a house and clear away "lava chunks" blasted from a volcano.

Once the game began, team members couldn't touch the robots, which were computer-programmed to operate automatically.

The Oklahoma-based KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) Institute for Practical Robotics supplied teams with Lego kits, two XBC controllers and 20 sensors and they had seven weeks to design, build and program two robots.

The teams had to submit documentation by three deadlines on their progress and make an oral presentation to judges yesterday. Those scores were added to game scores.

Teachers and mentors had a crash course in computer programming and robot building in February with Botball inventor David Miller, the KISS Institute founder. He was at yesterday's tournament with his wife, Dr. Cathryne Stein, KISS executive director.

J.J. Olive, a Waiakea High School junior and member of the defending championship team, said "teams are definitely getting better" since the tournament began four years ago.